Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Connie Lou

Seriously, I am just so tired.
Oi! So this week will make six months here in Brasil, that is ridiculously hard to believe, it passes so fast.
We had interviews with President Swenson this last week... or maybe it was the week before, I don´t really remember anymore. Ha it was pretty quick. We talked about old junker cars for a little bit, I expressed my sadness over the news of  *Connie Lou´s demise.
It was a nice day today, I set up my hammock and took a good nap, it felt SOOOOO good. We just changed to ´summer schedule´ (Day light saving time) We jumped forward, so we lost an hour of sleep Saturday night and it was hard to fall asleep last night. Does that put me five hours ahead of home now, or will it be six when the U.S changes time?
I am sorry, this is looking like it will be another short one.
I did a little study on gratitude this week, I was feeling like kind of a schmuck so I had to burn myself a little bit. Presidnet Monson gave a really good talk on gratitude a year ago in conference that I went and read and was humbled and filled with gratitude for how richly The Lord blesses me.
http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude?lang=eng&query=,+%28name%3a%22Thomas+S.+Monson%22%29+%28collection%3a%22general-conference%22%29
(That is the talk I read, highly recommended)
Anyways, time to head out for now.
I love you, take care.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e amigo
Elder David F. Morgan

*Connie Lou is the name David gave to our old blue Ford Contour that was recently totaled.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Simplify

Oi! Sorry this will be very short this week.
We had a great week, lots of hard work, we are really starting to get the members helping us with out work and are trying to really unify our ward here.
Since we didn´t get to see conference we read ´The Man´s´* talk for a companion study about focusing on the things that are the most important. I would encourage EVERYBODY to find it and read it. It is very good and very wise council to just steady the course, slow down our mind a little and focus on the things that REALLY matter. We have been trying to apply that principle to our work here and really just focus on the things of greatest importance instead of trying to do it all at once.
Turns out a member of our ward is from Haiti and speaks five languages. That is cool, we had lunch with him today. He is a stud.
Sorry, but that is really all there is time for today.
I love you all, take care.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo

Elder David F. Morgan

*By the way, "The Man" is Elder Uchtdorf. For those of you who don't belong to my church he is one of our church leaders.
We have a prophet at the head of the church and 12 apostles. Elder Uchtdorf is one of the 12 apostles.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

We need a miracle

Oi!
Wow, I am just beat, so tired, but SO happy, funny how that works. But seriously I am tired.
So we had a great week. We found, we taught and we testified.
We really struggled finding new people to teach though. I had really been having a hard time just opening my mouth and talking to people, talking to people on the street, the store, wherever. I didn´t get it, I just REALLY felt so uneasy about talking to people. (this was last week.) I had been praying so much for the strength and courage to just trust The Lord and talk with people and share what I have to offer.
It really happened, The Lord's promise that our mouths will be filled with what we need to say. I just started going to talk to people and it seemed like before I new it I was talking and writing down address and the words were just being put in my mouth. It is still kind of scary, but sometimes there isn´t a magic pill that makes things easier, your just square your shoulders and do it, and The Lords promises to be with us.
I have really learned a lot this week, especially about always having a prayer in your heart. I always thought that was kind of a funny expression and how could you be always praying. I feel like I am somewhat starting to figure out what that means, Sometimes ( maybe even usually) it is just the yearnings of our hearts and not actually the words that are our prayers.
So I only got to watch conference on Saturday OR Priesthood session so I never saw ´The Man´speak, I was more than a little bummed about that but we could only go if we had people investigating the church to come with us (and we didn´t) everybody we are teaching went Sunday. So we spent the day trying to find new people to teach. It was kind of funny, we spend the whole day (we started earlier than usual too) trying to talk to everybody, going to the houses of the people we contacted that week, talked to people on the street, knocked doors, went to references we had received, EVERYTHING, and nobody accepted us Saturday, but I felt so good just knowing I had done my part. This is where this weeks miracle comes in. Sunday we spent trying to teach or getting people to conference. Conference was really good by the way, it was kind of funny to have it dubbed over in Portuguese but I understood just fine, I am really starting to gain more confidence with the language, but I have to actually focus. If I actively listen I get the vast majority of what is going on, especially in a gospel setting. I didn´t have any problems at conference, I just have to tune in, I can't let my mind wander.
So yes, this weeks miracle. We got back into Simões at about 8 and we had a half hour to find people. We just walked across the street and knocked on a door. Elder Pàlandi turned to me and said, we really could use a miracle. A man opened the door and we gave a short message and asked if we could come in and share more, much to my surprise the response was, ´sure come on in´(not something that happens often) It was a good lesson and I felt blessed and they were great people and we are going to return and talk to them more this week. I thought, wow miracle, someone actually let us in, sweet. It was almost time to go home but, we decided to knock a bit more. We got rejected at one and then we stopped at another. Elder Palandi said again, we really could use another miracle, and two more people to teach. A man answered the door again and much to my surprise let us in to talk with he and his wife ( TWO more people to teach) They were very receptive and we had a great conversation with them and they invited us to come back again. I really felt that they were people honest in heart and doing all they can to follow The Lord. Que Milagre! We had put in all of our effort to find people to teach all week and had come up with nothing. When we showed The Lord we were willing to go until the last minute he blessed us to be lead to people who would accept us and hear our message.
We are really working hard here and I love it. Plus I sleep like a baby every night.
Okay, I will wrap this up. I hope everything is going well back home. Sounds like dad had quite an adventure getting to Salt Lake,
Much Love
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo
Elder David F. Morgan

Monday, October 3, 2011

New Address

We've been given an updated address for sending packages to Elder Morgan. I'm assuming it's also for letters because as of now we don't have a direct address for sending letters.

Brazil Porto Alegre South Mission
Elder David F. Morgan (they want his full name)
Av. Princesa Isabel, 342-B
Santana-Porto Alegre, RS 90629-000
Brazil

Priority mail is still required.